Leipheimer, 37, of Santa Rosa, Calif., recent winner of the Tour of Switzerland, will join Horner on

Chris Horner pedaled back into the lead of the Tour of Spain on Sept. 2 with his second stage win in the season s final Grand Tour. He s still several mountaintop stages and nearly two weeks of racing away from the first three-week title of his nearly two-decade career.
Horner does not have a contract for the 2014 season, but it be would unique for Jens Voigt (age 42 on Sept. 17) and Horner (age 42 on Oct. 23) to continue their careers on the same squad next season.
Horner s participation in this year s Tour of Spain is his 11th Grand Tour in a pro career dating to 1995. He s completed six Grand Tours, including a career-best ninth overall in the 2010 Tour de France.
I contributed the following feature on Horner to USA Today just prior to the start of the 2011 Tour de France. He crashed out of the event, but returned in 2012 to finish 13th overall. This season, injuries have plague Horner again and he wasn t selected to ride in the Tour de France.
Changing my diet has been huge, said Horner, 39. But there also comes time in someone s career when you just want do to everything you can. You want to do the maximum sleep, the maximum recovery, the maximum diet.
In the middle of his 17 th pro season, a sleek Horner is a top-three overall contender in the 21-stage, 23-day, 2,131.6-mile race. The 98th edition of cycling’s biggest race begins with a 118.6-mile stage from Passage du Gois to Mont des Alouettes and ends July 24 in Paris.
I could eat whatever I wanted, said Horner, whose 10th overall was the top USA finish last year after now-retired RadioShack teammate Lance Armstrong faltered following several crashes. japan tour The junk food didn t affect my weight any if I wanted to stay 145 to 147 pounds. But if you want to stay in the 130s, you gotta do some extra work.
Horner, at his leanest in several years and climbing at his career-best, hasn t raced often this year, finished in second in Tour of the Basque Country in Spain in April. He then rode to a dominating title over teammate Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa in May at the Tour of California.
japan tour I think it would epic, said Horner of a potential top-three finisher. “I would love it, and I think I am capable of being on the podium. But certainly at the Tour you need everything to fall into place. I’m racing as well as I have and tactically I don t make many mistakes.
To celebrate the event s 100th anniversary of pedaling in the Alps, riders will climb the famed Col du Galibier in stages 18 and 19. The field will ride to the highest altitude in Tour de France history and finish the second of the two monstrous days at the equally renowned L Alpe d Huez.
I believe I have the fitness to race until I m 45, but can I avoid the accidents and injuries. That s way worries me. Even if I lost a little bit of form, it doesn t mean I m not capable of winning stages. The thing that concerns me is staying off the pavement and I don t want to descent as fast as I did when I was younger.
Leipheimer, 37, of Santa Rosa, Calif., recent winner of the Tour of Switzerland, will join Horner on the RadioShack team. It also features title contenders Andreas Kloden, 36, the two-time Tour de France runner-up of Germany; and Jani Brajkovic of Slovenia, the 2010 Dauphine-Libere japan tour winner.
japan tour Christian Vande Velde, 35, of Lemont, Ill., who finished 4th in the 2008 Tour de France; Dave Zabriskie, 32, of Salt Lake City, a Tour de France time trial stage winner; sprinter Tyler Farrar, 27, of Wenatchee, Wa.; and Tom Danielson, 33, of Boulder, Colo., will represent Colorado-based Garmin-Cervelo.
George japan tour Hincapie, 38, of Greenville, S.C., competing in the Tour de France for a record-tying 16th time, and Brent Bookwalter, 27, of Albuquerque, N.M., will ride for California-based BMC. Tejay van Garderen, 22, of Bozeman, Mont., will make his Tour de France debut and will ride with Danny Pate, 32, of Colorado Springs, Colo., as one of his HTC-Highroad teammates.